Sweet Tea Pie Turns the South's Most Popular Drink into One Insane Dessert

Sweet Tea Pie. Those words seem like a typo, like there's a comma missing in somebody's diner order. But no, Sweet Tea Pie is real—and it's a gooey, caramel-y delight.

We first spotted it on the menu at Lucy's Fried Chicken in Austin, TX, and had to order it right away (along with the fried green tomatoes, cornbread muffins with tequila butter, margaritas—and, of course, the fried chicken). The pie was custard-y, but with a rich, decadent flavor that tasted more like dulce de leche or the caramel filling in Millionaire's Shortbread. Out of everything we sampled, that was the dish we talked about for days afterward.

Jonathan Boulton

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This is our homage to that pie. It's a riff on a classic chess pie, with a richer flavor—thanks to the iced tea—and a citrusy kick to keep it from being cloyingly sweet. We doubled the tea-mix-to-water ratio in our 1/4 cup, just to make the flavor stronger. You could also make your own brew using tea bags, though we liked the flavor from the powdered mix better.

The cornmeal in this pie gives it that crisp, crackly top crust, which can throw you off when you're baking, especially since the inside is meant to stay gooey. The top will turn an oatmeal cookie-brown, and if you wiggle the pie ever so slightly, you'll see it's still a bit jiggly. Good. You want that.

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The key is to let it sit for at least an hour before slicing into it. That keeps it from turning into a syrupy soup you have to ladle into bowls (though served a la mode, that could be incredible).